jim jil bang

It is cold here. It has been cold for awhile and it won't be warming up anytime soon. Our family has been indulging in a very Korean way of keeping warm. We have discovered Korean saunas and we are in love. These pictures show how cold it has been as these are the inside of our windows. The moisture builds up from the condensation and freezes. The house is basically pretty warm as this is between the outer windows and the inner set. If we keep the inner set closed this cold area doesn't really affect our environment inside the apartment.
So on evenings like these we head out to our local jim jil bang. A jim jil bang is a sauna where part of the building is separated by gender and then there is a common area where everyone wears uniforms and it is co-ed. I will try to describe what it is like in the separated section first. You go in and when you pay you are issued towels and a key to a locker. This is where John and us girls part ways. We head into the ladies dressing room where we all get naked and put our clothes in our lockers. Then we go into the shower and hot tubs room. This is an amazing place. In one area women in underwear and bras are massaging and scrubbing women on tables for a fee. Other women are showering and scrubbing themselves and each other. It is really great - everyone is naked except the massage table ladies and once you have rinsed off you can go in the tubs. There are usually a few different ones that are different temperatures and there is usually one that has a big teabag of green tea floating in it. Usually there is a warm one, a hot one and a very hot one as well as one cold one. Netta spends most of her time in the freezing one or trying to get me to go in the freezing one with her. In one of our local ones there is a little pool for little ones. There are also saunas in this section for those who would rather go in them in the nude I guess. Usually after about an hour of soaking we have a time to meet John and we get dressed in our uniforms that they gave us when we paid and we go into the common area. For obvious reasons I don't have photos of the showering tubbing area but here are some from the jim jil bang area.
Here are some folks chilling in the common area. People lay around on mats and relax. There is usually a restaurant, snack area, sometimes a play room, and a few different saunas. They are usually different temperatures and there is generally a cold room. You can even sleep in these places for the night. We have a few friends who have slept in them - it is cheap and seems nice. We saw babies napping, kids playing, lovers cuddling and lots of people sleeping and drinking.
Here is Netta having ice cream - it is so warm in there that an ice cream is refreshing. We always feel warm inside and out after we go there. When we leave we feel like it is actually warmer outside because we are so thoroughly warmed.
In the background here you can see people relaxing - kind of hard to photograph it as it feels invasive to be snapping photos. The uniforms are usually different colors for men, women and children. We haven't seen any foreigners in these yet - well actually one woman from Vietnam talked to me once.
I can't stand most of the saunas themselves as they are so stifling and hot - but there is one that I loved. It is warm, about 80 degrees F I think, and the whole floor is made of small stones. There are wooden headrests placed all around the perimeter of the circular space and everyone lays in the warm stones with their feet in the center. Very comfortable for my body, soothing and nice.

The kids ask every day to go to the sauna- it is a good time for all.

I think Santa Cruz needs one - what do you think? Business opportunity? Investors?

Kidzania

Ok I am catching up on old posts. This is from our second playdate with Grace. We went to this place called Kidzania. I had heard of it from some other kids in Seoul and we had been looking forward to checking it out. It lived up to its stories - Netta loved it and I must admit it is a fun place. It is like an amusement park but is set up like a small version of Seoul. A lot of the businesses in Seoul have mini versions of themselves set up here. So Seoul Milk and Paris Baguette as well as many others are here. The basic idea is that kids can do jobs and take classes. There is a TV studio where the kids do the news show. Netta was the cameraman because she doesn't speak Korean and it was so fun. She got to use a real camera. They then make a DVD of the performance for the parents. Kids get paid for doing jobs and they pay money for classes. Netta took a cooking class and spent some of her "money" there. Kids also get to open bank accounts, have ATM cards and credit cards. Nothing like creating consumers from an early age. But it was so fun for Netta to get to do grown up things. In the picture above you can see the kids ready to make donuts in their hair nets and all.

Here Netta is working in a hotel. They are cleaning the room and preparing it for visitors. They wore little blazers as uniforms and the room was kind of mini sized - so cute.
Here is Netta working at the fire department. They drove the kids in a small fire truck through the little streets with the siren on and all. Netta got to ride shotgun!
Here is Netta fighting the "fire" - it was in an old hotel and they got to shoot real water at the "flames".
The triumphant fire fighters.
Olive in the little fire truck. It was kind of a hard day for Olive as none of the activities were geared towards littler ones. She kept wanting to go where Netta was but couldn't. Also her leg was not quite working right yet so there was a lot of carrying for me.
Netta being a cheerleader. She didn't really want to do this but ended up having fun. They practiced and then performed on the soccer field - they did a routine to "Oh Mickey". Very cute...

Here is Netta with Grace and Irene. They are sweet girls who both speak English very well. Netta likes them - it was a fun day!!!
Here is Netta's list of things that were there:

recording studio
fire department
beauty shop
Mr. Pizza
Cheerleading squad
soccer team
dentist
bank
Paris Baguette
Italian food place
Dunkin Donuts
Baskin Robbins
Deok place
Korean Airlines
Lotte Hotel
Exterminator
Construction site
Archaelogical site
house painters
Hospital
pharmacy
E-Mart
Kyobo Book store
clock tower
police station
court house
movie theatre
acting theatre
jail
car wash
car making studio
car mechanic
gas station


It was a bit of a pricey day but fun!

And we never could have done it without Korean friends as they really helped us navigate the whole thing.

Bye for now!

Netta on Ice

When Pauline was here we tried to go ice skating with Netta. We ended up in an enormous bookstore and we never actually found the skating rink that we had read about on the internet. But while we were looking at books we met a little girl named Grace. She took our phone number and called the next day to make play date with Netta. So we went back to the bookstore and met her after Pauline went home. We ended up going ice skating with her. She knew where the rink was and showed us the way. Netta had a great time and after hanging on to the side for a short time to get her balance she was off skating and having fun. Poor Olive wanted to skate but with her leg still healing it didn't seem like the best plan. So Olive and I waited for Netta and Grace and ate cookies. It was a lovely day and has led to more fun play dates with Grace and her friends. They are really sweet and she is quite a kid. Very brave to call us and spark up the friendship.

In fact the next post will be about our next day with them..... Something to look forward to......

Songwhangsa Temple

Hi I am finally back weeks later to finish blogging about our trip with Pauline. On our last day in the village we tried to go to Songwhangsa Temple which is one of the three jewel temples in Korea. It was snowing and the mountainous road was closed so we turned back when the driving got treacherous and headed to the hot springs. We spent a lovely afternoon in the warm water and then tried the temple in the morning before we had to leave to go home. We made it and it was worth it - so beautiful.
We even got to hear the bell being rung. What a lovely sound - John recorded it and will be able to use it in his work.
Amazing icicles hanging from the temple walls.
Olive got kind of sad and cold but perked up when Netta carried her out. Netta was quite a trouper as the going was a bit icy and steep.
This is the river that we walked by on the way up to the temple. So amazingly beautiful.
This huge stone was remarkable. Netta is in for scale. (I wish I could figure out how to turn these photos - sorry)
Olive feeling better.
Lots of lovely, white, fresh snow.
Detail of paintings on the main temple hall. Inside were large golden statues of the buddha - lovely.
Netta and Olive "feeding" the statue.
It was hard to leave this beautiful, peaceful place but the rental car was due back so off we went.
Here are a few more images:



Here are some shots of tunnels from our drive home- Korea is so mountainous that there are lots of tunnels to drive through. They entertained the kids on the long drive - especially with Pauline counting when we went in and when we went out.

That is the end of our trip with Pauline - she left the next day - we still miss having her here. It was a great visit - thanks Pauline!

Nagan village

So here are more photos from Nagan Village.




Here is when the snow fell.
The girls with their snowperson.
A swept path with footprints.
This is the iron worker in the village. We bought a knife from him and now every time I use it I think of watching him placing it in the fire and then hammering it. It is heavy and sharp.

Our Min bak

Blanketed in white - so amazing on the thatched roofs.
The snowy wall.

Netta's snow angel. Nice - huh?
The snow woman with the ginko leaf hat. There is a 600 year old ginko tree in the village - maybe this leaf came from that tree.
Icicles hanging from thatch.
Such a beautiful place.